A few weeks ago we were hanging out with a group of newish friends, and I was reminded of the importance of having newish friends as I listened to Simon describe the general character of our relationship–a thing that doesn’t often happen with oldish friends, who have seen the relationship in action enough they’ve no need for the soundbite version, a sad thing indeed when your favorite thing to talk about is yourself (hello blog! I’ve missed you!)). “I think our relationship works,” he said, “because I’m completely predictable and she’s a total mystery. I seriously can’t figure her out, and I don’t think I ever will.”

Although Simon is an oldish part of my life, this was a newish thing for him to say, and that was kind of amazing considering how perfectly the thought encapsulated both (a) our personalities and (b) the mechanics of our connection. We are complementary in the most geometric sense of the word (together we make a right [angle]), but I’d never thought about that particular aspect of how our edges line up. I, a person who hates surprises and prefers everything to be “just so,” had found someone so steady and dependable that I never need worry what he’s going to think or say or do next because I know him, and he, a person who’s game for anything and rock-and-rolls with the punches and always lets the waiter pick his food for him (my god, you could not pay me enough to play that roulette), had found someone who, apparently, keeps him on his toes, always guessing, ever curious about what will happen next.

(As someone convinced she’s mostly boring and thoroughly WYSIWYG, I won’t pretend I’m not flattered that he thinks I’m mysterious! Picture me wearing a black hat with a large brim that comes down over one eye and contrasts perfectly with my platinum Hollywood waves.)

(Alas, I’m afraid that, knowing myself as I do, he doesn’t mean “mysterious” so much as “complicated, confounding, and often quite maddening in many ways.”)

Anyway, as I was thinking about what Simon had said, it reminded me of something our wedding officiant said that was equally on-the-nose. I was sure I’d blogged about it at some point between then and now, but it turns out I only mentioned it in a draft of a post that was never published. It was fun for me to go back and read those words–from September 14, 2012, when Fox was eight weeks old and Wombat was almost four and Simon and I were still newly marveling at what we had managed to forge in the fire of our mismatched togetherness–and I thought it might be fun for you to read that stuff too. Here it is:

Never do I feel like a more competent mother than when I can produce from my purse just the right thing at just the right moment. Got a boo-boo? I have a selection of whimsical bandages at your disposal. Need to jot down a note? Take your pick of regular pencil, red pencil, pen (colors vary), marker, and random crayon of the month. Thingamabobs? I’ve got twenty!

As for snacks, I fancy myself a one-woman traveling smorgasbord of healthy, kid-friendly nibbles, and when I’m on my game, it’s a truly glorious thing. I suppose Mary Poppins could pull a full-fledged apple orchard from her carpetbag the moment she senses a child’s tummy is about to rumble, but no one likes a show-off, and besides, I’ve tried carrying apples in my purse, and the result, to put it in one word, is supercalifragilisticexpialigross.

With two working parents, a kid in school, and another in daycare (plus swimming lessons and playdates and last-minute trips to the grocery store), we’re always on the go, and that means sometimes eating in locales so exclusive you’ll never see them written up in the guidebooks (because the world is not invited to stop in for a bite in the back seat of my car as I chauffeur my children all about the town). I never (literally never) leave home without healthy snacks in my purse, even if I’m just going out for a quick errand. Ever the consummate worst-case scenarist, I’d hate to risk any of us having low blood sugar when the zombie apocalypse begins.

They’re healthy, delicious, good for every single member of the family, and you can throw a handful of them in your purse and they never get squashed or crumpled or forgotten. They’re 100 percent fresh fruit without the risk of bruised bananas, accidentally-juiced oranges, or apples that rolled to freedom, magnificent freedom! only to be found a month later, shriveled and petrified, under the passenger seat of my car. Not that that’s ever happened.

The kids love them because they’re kids, and all kids like applesauce–it’s written right there in the rulebook. When I asked Wombat if he had anything to say about pouches, he said, “They’re tasty and yummy” (italics indicate he flashed me the Crazy Eyes™), and then he added, “Mom, do a lot of exclamations. A LOT.” Then he got up and came across the room to make sure I did it, so here: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He says that will suffice.

There’s really nothing not to love. They’re delicious, they’re all-natural, and they’re gluten-, dairy-, and nut-free. Buy them in bulk (we like the variety pack with four different fruit flavors, including AppleStrawberry) and use them for lunches, picnics, post-workout snacks, and between-meal lifesavers. They’re the practically perfect product to keep stashed in your car, your purse, and your magic carpetbag.

***

Now, for a chance to win a $100 Visa gift card, leave a comment answering this question: What on-the-go activities are you and/or your kids looking forward to this year? (I’m thinking Fox might be the kind of kid who needs to start soccer lessons as soon as possible. Aiee.)

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

1. Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post

2. Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “”#gogogiveaway” and #SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post

3. Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post

4. For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. The notification email will come directly from BlogHer via the sweeps@blogher email address. You will have 72 hours to respond; otherwise a new winner will be selected.

Minus the withering look from Blossom’s stepmother at the beginning, this is an accurate dramatization of my first week using the Weight Watchers app:

I was measuring, I was tracking, I was meeting all my goals, I was king of the disco floor. I was so confident of my inevitable success that I spent some time reimagining my wardrobe made entirely of spandex.

At the end of that first week, I was strutting into the weekend with 15 extra points to spare and feelin’ pret-ty groovy. Aaaaand, then I woke up on Friday morning and realized my counter had reset for the week (surprise, my Weight Watchers week is Friday to Friday, not Sunday to Sunday), meaning I wasn’t doing as well as I’d thought, given that those 49 “extra” points in my weekly allowance had yet to encounter their arch nemesis: the Weekend.

So. Yeah. About Friday night. I went to a party and exceeded my daily points goal by almost double (DUH-BULL) to the tune of a taco bar, other people’s wine, and homemade blueberry streusel muffins made of MAGIC. It was awesome and I regret nothing, but it was also a major reality check, and I basically spent the next six days like this:

The thing is, even if you’re aware you’re overeating when you’re mid-bite, it’s incredibly hard to bridge the mental gap between that one moment of immediate gratification and its long-term consequences, especially when you keep thinking of that one moment of indulgence as an isolated incident, instead of taking a step back and acknowledging that aaalllll those isolated moments have joined up to form a giant conga line that stretches down the block.

What Weight Watchers does is shine a spotlight on the conga line so you can’t keep pretending it’s not there, snaking off into the distance, maracas a-shake. Weight Watchers turns the conga music up to 11 so you can’t pretend you don’t hear it.

Simmer down, Tony.

In just this short time using the PointsPlus system, the most important thing I’ve learned is how life-changing it is to be able to quantify my interaction with food. I don’t know about you, but saying, “I ate kinda bad on Friday night so I need to eat kinda better on Saturday morning” does not pave a smooth path toward success but instead a creates a dead-end street cobbled with cop-outs.

In contrast, I’ve found I can actually change my eating habits when I can say, “I have this many points per day/week, and this thing I’m considering eating right now will cost me X number of those points, so I need to make a choice.” And it’s in that moment–that balanced-on-the-roof-ridge-of-decision moment–that Weight Watchers is empowering and has the potential to inspire real change. Because the program isn’t about following rules, it’s about making choices. Yes, there are guidelines in place to help you make good choices instead of bad ones, and yes, there are personal coaches and a 24/7 chat line to point you in the right direction, but in the end, in the program as in life, the choice is up to you. That’s the good news and the bad news, but mostly the good news.

When my personal coach, Betsy, asked me during our first session what I thought would be my biggest obstacle, I told her it was likely to be my stubbornness; I’m used to talking my way into and out of things, I’m used to no one being the boss of me, and I’m used to having my cake and eating it too, so trying to follow a program while being ultimately beholden to no one but myself, well…that would be interesting. I predicted my Weight Watchers experience would be more of a mental game than a physical game, and so far that’s turned out to be true. I’m never hungry on the program (huge sigh of relief), but I do find myself grumping over the points values of this versus that, and whimpering while everyone else is having another cocktail. But it’s not because the system feels unfair or cruelly restrictive but because I’m simply not used to it. But I’m getting used to it. And I think it’s working.

This is my last post for the campaign (unless enough of you follow Kathleen’s lead and clamor for more?), but I’ll be staying on the program through at least the end of March, and I’m feeling really good about it. When I first mentioned I was doing this on Twitter, a handful of people said the program absolutely works for those who take it seriously and make a consistent effort to follow the plan, and I really took that to heart. I’ve been religiously tracking points (nary a single nibble of pb&j while I’m making kindergarten lunch goes unrecorded), and I’m paying close attention to all the physical and emotional ups and downs of the experience too. This week, Personal Coach Betsy (I’m down with PCB, yeah, you know me) helped me set a goal to get regular exercise back into my life (props to Whitney for recommending a 7-minute workout app), and I’m looking forward to having her support (and yours) through that process.

Although this blog series is ending, I feel like my journey (dammit!) is just beginning. Thanks for letting me share, and I wish you all luck in your lose-weight/eat-better/exercise-more/feel-awesome endeavors.

***

Have you used Weight Watchers? How do you deal with challenges when it comes to eating better? Leave a comment below to enter for a chance to win a one month Weight Watchers membership and a Weight Watchers prize pack!

Sweepstakes Rules:

No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post

Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including a disclosure that your Tweet is a sweepstakes entry and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post

Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post

For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

No purchase necessary to enter or win. A purchase will not improve your chances of winning. Void where prohibited by law. Open to legal residents of the 48 contiguous United States and D.C. (“Territory”) who are 18 years of age or older. Void outside the Territory. Odds of winning depend on number of eligible entries received. Twitter makes no endorsement of this promotion nor is involved with the promotion in any way. Sponsor: BlogHer, Inc., 1301 Shoreway Road, Suite 340, Belmont, CA 94002. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. The notification email will come directly from BlogHer via the sweeps@blogher email address. You will have 72 hours to respond; otherwise a new winner will be selected.

This post was created as part of a relationship in which I was sponsored by Weight Watchers and given a free three month subscription to try their new Personal Coaching product and write about my experience. Though I was compensated for my time and commitment, all views, positive and negative, are my own.